{"id":2956,"date":"2015-08-03T12:24:33","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T16:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2015-08-03T12:24:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T16:24:33","slug":"update-from-asis-cto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2015\/08\/03\/update-from-asis-cto\/","title":{"rendered":"Update from ASI\u2019s CTO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are few things more productive than getting together with your peers to brainstorm pressing issues everyone can relate to and learn from, especially when the topics concern new and emerging technology.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why I was so happy to host a CTO Summit in conjunction with ASI\u2019s Chicago show in mid-July. All told, 14 distributors, partners and suppliers \u2013 including SanMar, Brighter Promotions, ASB, Facilis, HALO and Safeguard \u2013 spent the day discussing technology, operations and customer service. I was very impressed with the high-level professionals who took the time to attend (our group is pictured below).<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/CTO2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just about everyone at the summit shares a keen interest in moving this industry forward, especially when it comes to automating and connecting suppliers and distributors for order processing. At ASI,\u00a0we know how important it is to everyone in our industry to have the latest, greatest real-time product information available at their fingertips.<\/p>\n<p>For the past two years, we\u2019ve devoted countless hours working directly with the industry\u2019s top suppliers to link their databases directly to ESP. By making quick, vital data sharing and communication available across the entire industry, the end-to-end workflow \u2013 from product inputting to price quoting to order processing \u2013 will be as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible.<\/p>\n<p>The summit\u2019s agenda (outlined below) covered a wide range of topics. Hopefully we provided something for everyone. If you need more info on anything, don\u2019t hesitate to email me at arafat@asicentral.com:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.asicentral.com\/magazines\/counselor\/Research\/content.aspx?id=2092\">ASI\u2019s State of the Industry<\/a><\/li>\n<li>ASI Case Study: Benefits and Challenges of the Modern Platform Architecture<\/li>\n<li>Right Brain\/Left Brain: Keeping Creativity Alive Within User Experience<\/li>\n<li>Technology Challenges from the Perspective of the Distributor<\/li>\n<li>Big Data: How to Tame It and Harness Its Power for Profit<\/li>\n<li>The Perilous and the Profitable: What You Should Know About Outsourcing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A personal highlight for me was hearing from ASI\u2019s chairman, Norman Cohn, one of the chief architects responsible for introducing more advanced technology to our industry, starting with the remarkable ESP database \u2013 now over 950,000 products strong, and counting. It\u2019s always fascinating to recall just how fast and far we\u2019ve come since the days of CDs, microfiche and rolodexes \u2013 and to imagine the possibilities ahead.<\/p>\n<p>This was our third CTO Summit and I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll continue as an annual event, so if you missed it this year, stay tuned for info on 2016. The goal is to establish a solid list of technologists we can rely on for input and feedback regarding the myriad of opportunities and challenges facing our ever-changing industry.<\/p>\n<p>To that end, I\u2019d like to especially thank the experts from Macrosoft for sharing their expertise with the group.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any questions regarding any topic we covered \u2013 or suggestions for future topics or speakers \u2013please let me know. I\u2019m grateful to everyone who attended and hope to see all of you next year as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 <em>ASI CTO Armughan Rafat<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are few things more productive than getting together with your peers to brainstorm pressing issues everyone can relate to and learn from, especially when the topics concern new and emerging technology. That\u2019s why I was so happy to host a CTO Summit in conjunction with ASI\u2019s Chicago show in mid-July. All told, 14 distributors, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asi-shows","category-community","category-guest-blog","category-news-about-asi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}